So Jacqui Smith has played the terror card in a wild bid to save her job. It is extraordinary she can warn us of grave danger and at the same time look so smug about it. She spoke in the House of Commons of a “Suspected bomb plot” despite the absence of certain key elements normally associated with the phrase “bomb plot”.
Like a bomb.
Or a plot.
This was not pointed out to her, because she was faced by a Tory idiot, Chris Grayling, who believes that the Tories can win votes by being even more resolute looking in the face of danger than Jacqui Smith. And watching less porn.
You might expect a real opposition to ask questions like:
“You told us that a serious bomb attack was planned for Easter, ten days ago. Where then is the bomb? Where are the explosives, the detonators? Are they in the same metaphysical space as the Iraqi WMD?
Instead Grayling taunted her that she had not devised a system which will stop terrorists entering the UK, if we do not know they are terrorists yet. You don’t say. The obvious answer to this is to stop anyone at all from entering the UK, and make everybody here already leave. I suggest we start with Chris Grayling.
When we have the Tories and New Labour in this downward spiral of competitive xenophobic populism, I really despair. Chris Grayling had me thinking for a minute he could be worse at the job than Jacqui Smith. That ought not to be possible.
Meantime we have this from the police:
Manchester’s counter-terrorism unit said most of the searches relating to the terror arrests had been completed and material collected was now being assessed.
“As this complex and detailed investigation continues, officers are sifting through the extensive amount of information so far received to assess its relevance to the investigation,” a spokesman said.
That is police speak for “We’ve found bugger all, but under New Labour legislation we can still hold them another fortnight to pressurise confessions or turn one against the others to make stuff up in terurn for getting out, or we can always bring in a paid supergrass from Pakistan again.”
Please note there are definitively no bombs, no explosives, no detonators, no firearms or weapons of any kind. There was no Easter bomb plot. Whether the men were really dangerous extremists is open to grave doubt at present.
After 12 days of detention the police still do not have evidence to charge anybody with anything.
They have some packets of sugar! How much more evidence do you need???
I expect to see holding quantities of sugar in excess of 3 grammes become a new offence under counter terrorism legislation. (It may well do wonders for the obesity problem as well.. win-win!)
Seriously though, spot-on as usual Craig.
I watched the debate. You’re right, Grayling was terrible. He had all 4 aces and lost the debate to a busted flush. More performances like that from the Conservative front bench and they could yet lose the election by default. Mind you, the LibDem wasn’t much better. A few moments later, Michael Howard showed how it should be done. Smith gave the now-traditional Labour reply to a good question by refusing utterly to answer it, proving to all what a faithful Brownite she is.
It reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Bart is accused of killing somebody before he was born. When this question is brought up, the police comment only that:
“He is very very clever…”
You should also mention that those arrested with their bangers and Catherine wheels in Plymouth were released without charge, too.
“When we have the Tories and New Labour in this downward spiral of competitive xenophobic populism, I really despair.”
Here Here!! – So do I – and it’s endemic in the Tory Party too. The latest Contribution on ‘ConservativeHome’ is typical. It’s by Patrick Mercer, MP for Newark and Retford and “former party spokesman on Homeland Security” – Note yet another appalling copycat US security-state buzz-phrase.
Here is a taster – the following are the first sentences of seven out of its ten paragraphs. I advise readers here not to bother with whole piece because it really is the most wretched populist jingoistic crap I’ve read in a long time – Sun op-ed pieces would struggle to compete:
*** “Britain is being completely failed by this Government’s feeble and weak-minded approach to protecting this country from terrorism.”
*** “Whilst our superb troops fight our enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Government is doing very little to stop terrorists from residing and communicating with each other in Britain and from being financed by the State.”
*** “The Government has been funding the very individuals who mean Britons nothing but harm.”
*** “In February this year, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Government to pay more than £70,000 in compensation to Abu Qatada and eight other terror suspects”
*** “We are also letting subversive individuals reside here in Britain so that they can plan their attacks and preach their hatred.”
*** “Whilst we let these people in, the Home Secretary has failed time and time again to deport those that threaten our security and our values.”
*** “In 2006, the police were given powers in the Terrorism Act to shut down extremist websites and yet the police have failed to close a single one.” (Careful Craig – he wants the police to be able to close your site down if they don’t like it)
I have posted a few comments on ConservativeHome over the past couple of months and thought about letting rip on this, but it’s like Farting against thunder, if you’ll excuse one of my late father’s more robust colloquialisms, and frankly I’m just too wearied with it.
“As this complex and detailed investigation continues, officers are sifting through the extensive amount of information so far received to assess its relevance to the investigation.”
*I* *CAN’T* *TAKE* *MUCH* MORE* *OF* *THIS* *STINKY* *BULLSHIT*. I have been thinking about the expenses row again. I’m not so sure if they will be fully published or not. Why has it been put back to this summer? More time to plot against the details being released? ‘Summer of rage’ and future terror plots spring to mind. The expenses scandal is just the teeny weeny top bit of a big filthy iceberg. I reckon they see it as ‘give them an inch, give them a mile’. ‘What will this arrogant populace want next? Heaven forbid!’ They will do anything they humanly can to stop those details getting published. If there’s one thing i’m sure of it’s that self-defense/self-preservation mechanisms can be ruthless.
Michael Howard
That’s the man. (I think). I was trying to remember the name of the man who held about six aces, and could have knocked Blair out of the Commons. But he fluffed it. Maybe he had had a bad’s night sleep. Which is a pity, because I think it led to, or towards, the terror attack on Iraq.
What does the terror card look like?
Is it scary?
I’m pretty sure sugar is used in ANFO, did they have fertiliser as well?
Well we all ken she’s lying through her teeth, big noise and distraction over here so we can get on with something even dastlier over there, oldest trick in the book – feckin Tom N Jerry politics.
When will Darling stand on a rake and have his teeth smashed oot?
Wednesday perhaps?!
CD
….officers are sifting through …..
Would that be sugar? I have a nice sugar sifter vintage 1930 if that would be any help.
Thanks Mary, that really made me laugh
Mary – grin :o)
Wouldn’t recommend you ring ’em up and offer it though, lest they decide to search your house for more suspicious devices!
Yes, you were correct. I did not think that they would have the sickening mendacity so soon after the Easter farce.
Now Quick has gone, perhaps they will consult Blackadder’s Baldrick to supply them with a ‘cunning plan’. It would not surprise me to see turnips declared as part of a terrorist’s arsenal.
We have one government,the EU. We are ruled by two right wing partie’s, LAB and CON with but one, and the same policy. “what’s init for us?”.
-*** “Britain is being completely failed by this Government’s feeble and weak-minded approach to protecting this country from terrorism.”-
translation: Vote Tory for a properly- run stasi-state.
-*** “Whilst we let these people in, the Home Secretary has failed time and time again to deport those that threaten our security and our values.”-
What do you expect, Mr Mercer? – They’re hardly likely to deport themselves, are they?
-*** “In 2006, the police were given powers in the Terrorism Act to shut down extremist websites and yet the police have failed to close a single one.”-
Some good news regarding the police!
What freedom and joy there is in the certain knowledge that I’m never going to vote Tory or Labour ever, ever again.
Yeah, the latest terror suspects will be sent home and told to keep their gobs shut, or kiddy-porn will be found on their computers, like the evil terrorist who got shot in the guts in the dead of night. I really don’t know anyone who lives in fear of terrorists, just the bloody cops and the council.
Surely if there was sufficient cause to get a warrant for their arrest then there would be sufficient pre-existing evidence to charge them with something already? Or is it just me?
It’s becoming quite obvious that when one of these crawling gutless creeps that go to make up both Labour and Conservative have got something to cover up they start by lying about other people and other things
Paul, it’s just you mate, sorry but you obviously don’t quite realize how phoney and desperate these people are to get and maintain power. The myriad draconian laws sneaking into play are designed to keep the likes of you and I subjugated, particularly in ignorance. The internet is their biggest problem in keeping secret their odious plans to set up a one world government. Sounds nice doesn’t it? No more national boundariers, or wars. BUT…..they won’t need about 85% of the world population, only enough to slave for them. Get Googling my friend and wake up, I suggest you start with ‘NWO’, then Alex Jones’ Prison Planet, then perhaps Henry Makow’s ‘Save the males’. It should take you about one year to get up to speed on the ‘evil agenda’, then if you don’t have a nervous breakdown you’ll see why ‘it’s just you’.
You might be interested to know that a States Senator (father of the House) in Jersey has been illegally arrested in a SWAT team swoop (and released after 7 hours detention) in an attempt by that Island’s police to gain access to various types of information (including parliamentary privileged information) in his possession. The Senator has been a whistleblower and a thorn in the side of the Island’s Oligarchy. This case appears to have much in common with the Damian Green case on the “mainland”.
Jersey has the convenience of being a Crown Dependency which gives its local authorities a lot of scope. The Senator is currently trying (rightly) to pin some responsibility on Jack Straw and get him to clean up the place [no laughs please].
His blog is here:
http://stuartsyvret.blogspot.com/
Sorry Paul, I digressed a bit there. You’ll find that about 99% of ALL arrested young muslims since 7/7 have been very quietly released without charge about 4 weeks later. Sensationally arrested, front page headlines ‘SUSPECTED TERROR PLOT SMASHED!’ These young guys are the victims of state-sponsored terror, traumatised into saying nothing. Remember the brothers arrested at their parents’ house in a massive dawn raid? Their old parents house torn to shreds for ‘evidence’ whilst they were bundled into a van to stay in some hotel room for weeks. Oh, I forgot to mention the first brother coming down the dark staircase to see who’d smashed the door in and getting shot in the stomach. He was never charged because he hadn’t done anything, and strangely, never sued the trigger-happy cops. Why? because they said they’d found kiddy-porn on this devout young muslim’s computer. I guess they’ll find it on all dissidents’ computers.
“The obvious answer to this is to stop anyone at all from entering the UK, and make everybody here already leave. I suggest we start with Chris Grayling.”
It is gems like this that brighten up my day 🙂
Come onnn, Craig, the old-fashioned word, is plain and simple:
“A distraction!”
There was not a syllable about the porno films.
Jacq is like a little child trying to avoid punishment by changing the subject.
If the common office worker were found watching porno in the office, never mind using petty cash for rentals, the bosses would FIRE THEM ON THE SPOT!
What is done in the U.k. effects us, here, in the U.S.
I WANT HER OUT!
Ol’ Jacq does NOT deserve to have authority over others!!!
A few years ago I had the misfortune to work for the same company as Chris Grayling and Damian Green. It may come as no surprise, but I have to say that Grayling is one of the most deeply unpleasant people I have ever met. He was widely disliked there including by all the other Tories, of whom there were quite a few. He had the habit of standing too close to you and talking to you as if he was innately superior.
At one time there was a financial squeeze, and at a staff meeting Grayling spoke quite eloquently about how salaries should be sacrosanct. Feeling that I had misjudged him, I congratulated him on his eloquence. From his response I immediately realised that as far as he was concerned he was only talking about the journalists, and he didn’t give a shit about anybody else. Truly a thoroughly nasty piece of work.
Thanks Ron, but I was being sarcastic and rhetorical 🙂
Well, well, aren’t I a clever clogs? The young muslims have been released without charge, as I thought. Is wacky Jacqi a piece of work or what? Methinks the whole episode of that top-secret document was deliberately shown to the press to initiate the dawn-raids on those ” TERROR PLOTTING SUSPECTS!” just to get her off the hook. That document couldn’t have had any possible evidence in it otherwise those lads would still be banged-up. This whole ‘ war on terror ‘ thing stinks to high heaven. Sorry Paul, I’m on medication.
As astute and spot on as ever Craig.
Thank you.
but it does take our minds off policemen hiding their identification numbers so they can give us the protection we deserve . i wonder what happened to that story
Conman Blair and his boss Bush would have had to invent Al Qaeeda if it didn’t exist. The terror hysteria has given authoritarian politicians and their police the excuse to extend their power, and the Brits are too lazy to think; they just swallow the crap. This country is going to see some really nasty police action if people at last realise just how much they have been taken for a ride and now have to pay for the bankers – the latter well protected by our state police as at the G20 summit.